Siena Has Arrived!

Holding a new babySiena Francesca Bettale was born Tuesday at 9:12 PM. She was 8 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches long. T went into labor in the afternoon on Monday and we went to the hospital Tuesday morning. She labored in a tub initially which helped tremendously. I was able to help by massaging her back during the contractions. She later requested an epidural and was fortunate to receive 100% pain relief from it. Apparently this is not common. While T recovered from the birth, I was able to help with bathing, weighing and measuring our newborn. Our stay at the hospital was incredibly positive. We just arrived home from our 3-day experience and I’m going to post a few pictures here before I try to sleep. We are both exhausted but so happy. More soon.

Oh, and Siena is spelled and pronounced like the Italian city: “see-en-uh”

Waiting for Baby

We are in the hospital right now. T is sleeping comfortably and I’m listening to my unborn daughter’s heart beat on the fetal monitor. She made it 24 hours without medication of any kind but finally decided on an epidural. Now she is able to sleep and gather strength for the birth in a few hours.

This is a great hospital – free wifi and a room with a beautiful view of Mt Adams and the Columbia River Gorge.

More soon :)

Fun in Seattle

We had a really fun day yesterday. Our plan was to go to Seattle because we had some stuff to take care of. We finished our business early and decided to play in the city for a bit. We headed over to the science fiction museum at the Space Needle and then toured the EMP (experience music project). As a science fiction fan I really enjoyed touring the SciFi museum with T. The EMP seemed like a glorified shrine to grunge which was incredibly lame but understandable considering where the building is located. The upper level was fun, however, with sound-proof boxes featuring instruments and computer-based tutorials on how to use them. We took some shots of T’s 5-month pregnant belly outside of the museum. Its reddish-brown riveted paneling made a perfect background to compliment my wife’s beautiful hair. Before heading home we dined at Benihana, and sipped delicious mango piña colada smoothies. It was a good night and we got to check off a few more items on our adventure to-do list.

Maternity photosMaternity photosMaternity photos

We’re having a girl =D

She's smiling for the cameraWe just had the week 21 ultrasound and learned our baby’s gender. If she looks anything like her mom then I’m not looking forward to when she turns sixteen! LOL – several friends asked me if I’m going to buy the shotgun now or wait until she’s of dating age.

T had her friend Corine do the ultrasound. They met during her first year as a special ed preschool teacher when Corine worked as a paraeducator. Now shes an ultrasound tech. Worked out quite well – and she was very thorough. It looks like we have a healthy little girl. It was amazing hearing her heart beat during the follow-up appointment with the OB a day later.

Now I’ll need to buy me a few shotguns!

My Masters Thesis is Finally Done

My MSEE thesis is now complete and I’ve satisfied all of my requirements for graduation from the electrical engineering department. My thesis is entitled “Design of a Reliable Embedded Radio Transceiver Module with Applications to Autonomous Underwater Vehicle Systems“. Well, I guess this concludes my edumahkayshun, and now I gots ta git me a reel job.

University of Washington Robofish on You Tube

My lab’s robotic fish are now on You Tube:


This video demonstrates robot fish schooling


Underwater camera view of our fish

The comments on YouTube about this video resmble the same questions and comments we received at our open house demo – especially the one about laser beams. LOL. Two comments were notable though:

ThunderStormV5000 writes:

Robot Fish for president! They have more brains than the current candidates!

Well, at least in the case of His Holiness the Liberal Savior (Barack Obama), I agree. A PowerPC processor clocked at 40 MHz would do a much better job of running our country.

zharbulfin writes:

thats really kewl. the people who made those r geniuses ^^

Yep, I agree with that one too! :D